Detectives investigating the disappearance of oil executive Carole Waugh are looking into the possibility that she may have lived a double life as an escort.
Waugh, 50, has not been seen since mid-April and police are increasingly convinced that she has been abducted by a a group who have taken over her identity and bank accounts and also tried to sell her home.
Waugh, 50, disappeared shortly after Easter
Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell, head of homicide at Scotland Yard told the Guardian: "These cases are very rare.
"They are marked by the complete absence of understanding of how someone can disappear from a full life, a job, leaving no trace."
The revelations have come as a total shock to her already distressed relatives.
Since her disappearance, police have been following a number of leads. They have said a white man in his 50s posed as Waugh's brother and walked into Foxtons in Marylebone and put her flat on the market.
Dubious financial transactions in the region of £280,000 have also been made on Waugh's accounts.